JWJPaton
commented
3 years ago This could do with a read from our deaf and hard of hearing colleagues to check for accuracy and especially terminology. Wikipedia doesn't count STTR as being exclusively a Palantypist or Stenographer but I'm not sure of another collective term for them. I felt that subtitles was safe terminology to use here since additional sounds are not normally relayed in live transcription but I'm happy for that to be changed to the prevailing terminology. It's also worth noting that there are also notetakers. These are fast typists using a standard keyboard who summarise the conversation. The result is not verbatim and is meant as an aide for hard of hearing people who just need some assistance with following the meeting. Since the text is not verbatim then it feels out of scope for a synchronisation discussion.
There are three main transcription methods for live subtitles. ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition), ASR with revoicing, and STTR (Speech To Text Reporting). ASR is a fully automated transcription process where a computer converts the speech into text. ASR with revoicing utilises a human intermediary who repeats everything that is spoken to an ASR system that is trained to their voice. STTR involves specially trained typists phonetically transcribing what is said using chord keyboards. The two main types of these keyboards are Palantype and Stenotype and Stenotype is the most common. Cost and accuracy both increase relative to how much of the work is done by a human.